DISH does it. If you have a Hopper 3, it gives you access to Netflix, Prime Video, and Pandora all through the same box. There’s an Android TV-powered addon that gives you even more. In fact, if you have DIRECTV Stream, the live streaming service, you get an Android TV-powered box that gives you streaming apps galore plus live TV. The outlier these days would seem to be DIRECTV’s satellite products, which offer only Pandora. Do you wish things were different?
Looking back
DIRECTV’s mid-2000s products were intended to be media hubs. The HR20, grandfather of today’s Genie systems, had a media player that could pull music and photos from a local server. Until the mid-2000s, All DIRECTV DVRs could play YouTube videos. Today’s DIRECTV products don’t have either capability. Blame low customer interest, largely due the poor way these things were implemented.
DIRECTV’s philosophy of “one box to rule them all” seemed to have gone by the wayside until the DIRECTV Stream box came out, and since then if you want a single box with all the features and apps, you’re encouraged to go that way.
Should DIRECTV rethink?
I’m going to give you a little thought experiment. First, consider that you can get a surprisingly good streaming device for under $50 from several manufacturers. These lower priced devices might be a tad slow but they’ll give you 4K and every app available. Then consider that DIRECTV’s Genie 2 is already fairly low priced and could probably cost even less if engineered today.
Now imagine one device that gave you all of these things:
- Satellite TV
- True local DVR capability for all channels
- Access to the same channels via streaming, automatically, if satellite signal was cut
- A modern user interface with an available app
- A voice and touch-enabled remote
- Access to every app available for streaming devices at the Google Play store
Really today’s DIRECTV Stream box does almost all of this, but there are some legitimate reasons to keep satellite. Cloud DVRs don’t let you keep things as long as you want. Streaming can get bogged down at some times of day. Satellite also brings you even more channels than you can get from streaming.
What would a single box like that do for you? What if you could even connect it to smart TVs wirelessly using a dongle-sized adapter? Would that interest you? Would it be enough to command, say, $500 of your hard earned dough?
The real reason…
No one quite knows why DIRECTV hasn’t really gone in this direction. The limitation isn’t technical. That’s one thing we know for sure. Everything I said is completely possible. It’s probably even possible at that price point. So why isn’t it being done?
I think that there’s a perception that satellite users wouldn’t want that. Way back when, pay-TV companies imagined there was no reason to stream. Even today, DIRECTV and DISH cater to a more mature audience. That’s a group unlikely to want multiple little boxes.
As Generation X heads towards its 50s and 60s, there may be a reason for pay-TV companies to change their minds. This was the original “whiz kid” generation. These were the folks who knew how to set the clock on the VCR. They just might be willing to pay more to get more, to integrate traditional pay and streaming in one box. I could see it. And it’s not that far off.
Now it’s your turn to sound off. Would you like a box like the one I described? Would you pay $500 for it? Or has that ship already sailed? Let’s start the conversation in the comments. You never know who might be listening.
